The American Heritage dictionary defines a "paperweight" as "a small, heavy, often decorative object that is placed on loose papers to hold them down." In popular usage, the word is most often mentioned in a joking way: if something is completely useless, you might joke that "you can always use it as a paperweight." The joke works in part because no one really uses paperweights these days. You just don't need a weight to hold down papers. Papers placed on a table or desk generally just sit there.

  So I wonder: Did people actually used to use paperweights, and if so, why? Were they just decorative, something used to show off the fact that you were literate and had paper? Or maybe they were more useful in an age before air conditioning and central heating, when you might expect more indoor air circulation that could blow your papers around? I looked around online, but I couldn't find anything directly on this. Any ideas?